Obama poised to win elections, chance for McCain dwindles

Source: Xinhua | 11-05-2008 11:14

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Being projected to win in keybattle ground states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, Democratic candidate Barack Obama seems to move toward victory as polling results poured in on Election Night, dwindling the chances of his rival John McCain for a upset.

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) and his wife Michelle vote in the U.S. presidential election at the Beulah Shoesmith Elementary School in  Chicago, Nov. 4, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Pennsylvania and Ohio have 21 and 20 electoral votes separately. The two states and Florida are called the "big three" which hold crucial swing in deciding who will succeed President George W. Bush in January. Counting in Florida showed that the two candidates are too close to call in the 27-vote southern state. Analysts here had said that with Pennsylvania going to Obama, McCain still has a chance but can not afford the loss of any key battleground states which the sitting President George W. Bush won in 2004.

According to projections by MSNBC, Obama collected 200 electoral votes while McCain got 90.

The victor needs 270 electoral votes to win the Electoral College and capture the presidency.

Under U.S. elections system, the president is determined not by the most votes nationally but by a majority of the Electoral College, which has 538 members.

The number of electors is equal to a state's number of representatives (based on population) and senators (two per state)in the U.S. Congress. In addition, the District of Columbia has three Electoral College Votes.

Each state, except Maine and Nebraska, awards its votes to the candidate who gets the most votes in the state. Maine and Nebraska split them by congressional district.

The Election Day dawned as McCain, 72, faces an enormous task in trying to prevent 47-year-old first term senator Obama from winning the White House.

According to a pre-election tracking poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News, Obama leads McCain by nine percentage points and is ahead in enough states to push him well past the 270 electoral votes need to win.

McCain continues to campaign furiously in a swath of East Coast and Midwestern states in his final push in the hope of staving off defeat, but to keep the White House in Republican hands, he needs to hold virtually every competitive state as well as some in which Obama is leading.

Whoever wins the presidency will make history. Obama could become the first African American president in the nation's history. McCain, if elected, will be oldest president swearing in a first-term, while his running mate, Sarah Palin, will become the first woman vice president in U.S. history.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei